Agenda item

Kath Cobain explained the background to the mandatory requirement for upper tier local authorities to develop an Outbreak Control Plan to oversee and deliver multi agency action aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 locally. The Plan, which was now live on the website, provided reassurance in the health protection system, by setting out the local response that would work alongside the national NHS Test and Trace programme and the regional role of Public Health England.

The Government had made additional monies available to support local authorities to develop and deliver their plans and Worcestershire had received £2.7M for this purpose.

As part of the local arrangements, the COVID-19 Health Protection Board, led by the Director of Public Health had been established to develop and oversee the delivery of the Plan.  Meanwhile a member-led Local Engagement in Outbreaks Board provided a mechanism to engage and communicate with the public on outbreak prevention. The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Health and Well-being was the Chairman and it would report directly to this Board. The daily management of outbreaks would be undertaken by a Local Outbreak Response Team (LORT) comprised of public health and environmental health practitioners and was accessible 7 days a week. The Team had a very proactive role in prevention of outbreaks as well as responding to a wide nature of complex queries.

Board Members were encouraged to interact with the Plan as it was a dynamic document able to respond to changes in guidance and local learning experiences.

A number of issues were raised by the Board and the following clarification and assurances were provided:

·         A greater confidence in the Trace and Testing system had now developed with good capacity in the system and timely communication of results. The triangulation of the data was now crucial to build in context and ensure that any early warning signs of an escalation of cases were identified.

·         Access to testing for all NHS staff was readily available as required. With opportunities for more regular testing, decisions would need to be made as to who would benefit the most from this.

·         Worcestershire now had a mobile ‘pop up’ testing system which the Director of Public Health could deploy anywhere in the County to access communities where there was localised need, for example to be more accessible in areas where there was low car ownership. She would welcome suggestions from members as to locations which would benefit from this.

·         Following the effective systems now in place in the care home sector, attention was now focussed on the wider care sector and ensuring that domiciliary care received priority when resources needed to be re-deployed to provide support.

·         The Outbreak Control Plan took account of the neighbouring partner areas. Joint co-operation and the ability to provide surge capacity across County borders was crucial.

·         80 cases had been dealt with by the LORT team in the past 4 weeks providing advice to schools, businesses and members of the public regarding COVID related issues.

·         Ideas about wider dissemination of some of the data to keep the public and organisations up to date with what they could do to help would be shared with the Communications team.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board note:

1.    The requirement for a Local Outbreak Plan to be established to oversee and deliver multi-agency action to reduce the spread of COVID-19 locally.

2.    That the Plan had been developed by a multi-agency COVID-19 Health Protection Board led by the Director of Public Health, and that  regular updates would be brought to the Health and Well-being Board.

3.    That a Member led Engagement in Outbreaks Board had been established to provide ownership and public-facing engagement and communication for preventing and responding to outbreaks of COVID-19 in Worcestershire.